For one more week, Bears opponents go from bad to worse. Miami is officially the worst team in the league based on strength of schedule.
The 1-6 Dolphins join the 1-7 Arizona Cardinals and 1-6 Detroit Lions as the only one-win teams left. But Miami has lost to teams with worse records than the Cardinals or Lions have.
The Dolphins have lost to the Steelers, Bills, Texans, Patriots, Jets and Packers. Only the Patriots have a winning record. The others are a combined 13-23.
The 2-5 Tennessee Titans are the only team the Dolphins have beaten.
This not only makes the Dolphins 13 1/2-point underdogs to the Bears on Sunday, it makes them the current front-runner to select first in April’s draft. The NFL uses strength of schedule, not head-to-head matchups, as its tiebreaker to determine draft order.
All wet
The Dolphins dumped a bucket of ice water on coach Nick Saban at the end of practice Monday, but it wasn’t to get ready for an upset against the Bears. It was a birthday celebration for Saban, who will turn 55 on Tuesday, the players’ day off.
“Nobody gives us a chance to win this game,” Saban told reporters. “This is a test. We should look at it as a challenge, and it’s everybody’s choice as to how we respond to that.”
The Dolphins are coming off their open date.
Coach stays
Dennis Green will remain coach of the Cardinals, but team Vice President Michael Bidwill indicated it took an informal poll to reach a decision. The Cards are entering their week off before resuming play against Dallas in Arizona.
After a 31-14 loss at Green Bay ended the team’s worst first half (1-7) since 1997, Bidwill released a statement on Monday: “In talking today with some of our leaders in the locker room and the coaching staff, it is clear they share the same frustration and disappointment that we all do because we are not winning. But it is also clear they plan to keep fighting to win through the second half of the season and have no intention of giving up.
“This is our approach as well. I do not believe a coaching change improves our chances of winning against the Cowboys or any game in the second half of the season, and winning is our No. 1 goal.”
Green is in the third year of a four-year contract that pays him $2.5 million per season. If he were fired now, the team would owe him $3.75 million.
Green said he expects wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, linebacker Karlos Dansby and nose tackle Kendrick Clancy back from injuries for the Dallas game.
“Hopefully, that will make a difference,” Green said at his Monday news conference. “Those are pretty good football players.”
All over again
If anybody believes the Bears are just picking on weaklings this season, it has happened before.
The combined record of the seven Bears victims is 17-33 after the Vikings’ loss to the Patriots on Monday night.
The combined record of the Bears’ first seven opponents in 1985? It was 17-32, helped by two victories over 0-7 Tampa Bay.
The margin of victory for these Bears (221-69) is greater than the 1985 Bears (212-105) when they were 7-0. Two of the three closest games for the 1985 Bears were by 10 and eight points against those winless Buccaneers.
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Super slumps
The Steelers and Seahawks are busy demonstrating why only three teams in the last 12 years have been able to make Super Bowl repeat trips: the 1996-97 Packers, 1997-98 Broncos and 2003-04 Patriots.
The 4-3 Seahawks are playing without injured quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and MVP Shaun Alexander. They still lead the NFC West but have lost two in a row and got bad news Monday: Alexander will miss at least another week because a cracked foot bone has not healed.
“He had pictures taken [Monday]. And the doctors are reluctant to give me the green light on Shaun based on what they saw in the pictures,” coach Mike Holmgren said.
The 2-5 Steelers are reeling because quarterback Ben Roethlisberger finally is having his rookie year. When he came into the league two years ago, he rode the coattails of a 15-1 team. In his sophomore season, the Steelers won the Super Bowl. Although Roethlisberger was outstanding in the AFC title game in Denver, his Super Bowl performance was the worst for a winning quarterback.
In his third season, Roethlisberger’s passer rating of 70.7 puts him down with Tampa Bay’s Bruce Gradkowski (69.1), Arizona’s Matt Leinart (66.9) and Tennessee’s Vince Young (60.5), three rookies who are starting.
New Giant
The Giants signed veteran linebacker Chris Claiborne on Monday after starting weak-side linebacker Brandon Short injured a quadriceps muscle in a win over Tampa Bay.
The Giants lost strong-side linebacker LaVar Arrington to a season-ending Achilles’ tendon injury the previous game against Dallas.
Injuries to linebackers ended the Giants’ season last year when Carolina’s DeShaun Foster ran for 151 yards in a 23-0 playoff win the week before the Panthers came to Chicago.
Claiborne spent eight NFL seasons with Detroit, Minnesota and St. Louis.
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